Border in church gives offence (5)
I believe the answer is:
crime
'offence' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'border in church' is the wordplay.
'border' becomes 'rim' (I've seen this before).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'rim' inserted within 'ce' is 'CRIME'.
'gives' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for crime that I've seen before include "Illegal act" , "Social problem" , "Punishable deed" , "Wicked deed" , "Legal offence" .)